Routine Care

Routine care is the unglamorous half of pet ownership: the feeding, cleaning, checking and record-keeping that happens when nothing is wrong. Its real value is comparison. An owner who knows what normal looks like for their own animal spots the change that matters, often weeks before it would be obvious to anybody else.

Build the year around a few fixed points

Most species settle into an annual rhythm. Young animals need a short course of vaccinations, then a booster roughly a year later; healthy adults are usually seen once a year, and older animals more often. Book the next appointment before you leave the current one and the timetable looks after itself.

Vaccination schedules differ by species and by local disease risk. Dogs, cats, rabbits and ferrets all have different requirements, and a course that has lapsed sometimes has to be restarted rather than simply topped up — which is one good reason to write the dates down.

The five-minute check you can do at home

Once a month, run through the same list in the same order:

• Weight. Small pets on the kitchen scales, dogs at home or on a shop’s weigh scale. A change of five per cent either way is worth mentioning.
• Body condition. You should be able to feel the ribs under a thin covering, and see a waist from above.
• Mouth. Lift the lip: gums pink, teeth free of heavy brown deposits, breath not foul. Rabbits and rodents also need their front teeth checked for overgrowth.
• Coat and skin. Part the fur over the rump and at the base of the tail and look for scurf, bald patches, scabs or flea dirt.
• Ears, eyes, nose and rear end. Discharge, smell, redness or matting are all early signals.
• Nails. Including the dew claws on dogs, which are easily missed and can curl into the pad.

What routine care actually prevents

Three things cause most of the avoidable problems in pets: excess weight, dental disease and parasites. Weight is controlled by measuring meals rather than guessing, and by counting treats as part of the daily ration. Dental disease is slowed by regular brushing with a pet toothpaste, started gently and started early. Parasite prevention has to be matched to the exact species, age and weight of the animal.

Keep the paperwork in one place

Vaccination card, microchip number and database, worming and flea dates, medication, insurance documents, and a note of your pet’s normal weight. Keep it together and photograph it as a backup. When an animal is unwell, in boarding kennels, or being seen by somebody who does not know them, that folder answers half the questions straight away.

If the timetable is unclear, or a routine problem starts changing quickly, contact a qualified local professional rather than waiting for the next scheduled appointment.